Evilvangelicals.

In the beginning, God was nothing. So then he started making stuff. He made the dirt, he made the sky, he made the water, he made things that swim, things that slither, things with legs. I mean, God turned himself into a big shot. Then, in a couple of days, or a couple of million years, he breathed life into man. And he's been sucking the life out of us ever since. ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series "Oz,"

I have not written much, this month. Oh, sure, I was dealing with car trouble for a couple of weeks. I've been busy, I've been tired. But you should know, dear reader, that there's more than that going on.

I've had a lot on my mind.

Maybe it's just the various ridiculous behaviors of the Evangelicals and the Republicans lately, especially since the election, maybe there's more than that going on. I don't know.

But I will tell you one thing, I've completely had it with religion...or at least with Christianity (most particularly the Evangelical or Fundamentalist sort) at least as it's practiced in the United States of America.

Consider the above photo, for example. Two women, simply sharing a kiss in the middle of a group of people dancing.

Presumably, this happened on Thanksgiving, but I've been sporadically seeing conservative butt-hurt about this for a week now.

I mean, what the fuck? For one thing, not all families are the same, our definition of family has been changing and growing for...basically my whole life. I don't give a damn if it's a "family program" nothing about this kiss here seems out of line to me.

This is America, in the 21st goddamned century, people have the right to do what they want as long as they're not hurting anybody else. Hell, this is America, there's a credible chance (though certainly, one that's reduced by the conduct and the hostility of the Christians and the conservatives themselves in this case) that one or the other or maybe even both of these women might be a Christian or a conservative herself. Certainly, as recently as a decade ago there were still some gay Republicans around.

But you can't tell that to these fucking people.

I'm serious, conservatives, ya'll are killing it for me, not least with the arrogant assumptions that somebody being white, straight and conservative is somehow the default nature of things, and anything else has to have "permission" by you to even exist.

Let's get one thing straight, there's six or seven billion people on this planet and I'm pretty sure the percentage of them that are white, politically conservative straight Americans or Europeans is a small percentage of that number. Ya'll ain't the default of anything, you're privileged assholes who have no fucking idea how the rest of the world works or what it's composed of.

And I'm going to be quite honest here. I'm not a Christian and I haven't been one in over a decade, and any belief I have in the concept and understanding of God that I once followed is being slowly strangled by this fucking bullshit.

I've officially amended my current theological viewpoint from "Agnostic Theist" to just plain "Agnostic."

Let me point out, that I have no issue with anybody else's concept of God. No Jewish or Muslim person that I've ever met (and relatively few that I've ever even heard of) has ever engaged in the kind of sustained patterns of bad conduct that have become routine fare for white conservative Evangelicals or Trump Supporters. Hell, I've damned few problems with other Christian sects besides Evangelicals at this point. They're not the ones ruining this whole "belief" thing for me. They're not the ones whose behavior repulses me to the point where I want nothing to do with their idea of God.

I've yet to see a Catholic person come out in favor of gassing migrant children, for example. Of course that might have something to do with the fact that probably a majority of said migrants are Catholic. That might have something to do with the fact that even the Pope has come out in favor of supporting these asylum seekers, immigrants and migrants, and said that national security should take second place to common decency in this matter. It is, after all, perfectly legal to seek asylum. Helping the foreigner, the immigrant, the needy and the stranger are all likewise things that the Christian religion not only encourages, but requires on a scriptural level. If you're a Christian, and you don't want to help the poor, you need to find a different religion.

But then, I honestly wonder if These Fucking People would try to shoot Jesus if they found out that he was a brown-skinned Middle-Eastern Jew who didn't share their right-wing politics.

Certainly they can't seem to understand that other people have a right to exist and be left in peace, like that fucking guy who (after he'd been told not to) went to North Sentinel Island to bother the Sentinelese tribes-people and try to teach them about Jesus expose them to modern diseases to which they have no immunity, almost certainly guaranteeing that 90% or more of them would die.

These people are, with some justification, violently xenophobic, to the point where they try to shoot down Indian Navy helicopters with bows and arrows. This damned Evangelist had been told repeatedly to not go to the island. He didn't listen, the natives shot him full of arrows.

Just sayin' when the natives only want to be left alone and will violently try to repulse anybody who comes too close it's probably best to just stay away. Also, be careful what you wish for, for you may get it.

And some "Christians" want these Native people punished when everybody from the Indian government and military on down told this dude not to go to that island, for this exact reason?

Fuck that.

I have a better idea, let's stop listening to the conservative white Evangelicals. Actually, I'm not certain about that term anymore either. I mean...can you "Evangelize" somebody for Donald Trump? He's not a god.

Like I said, it's been awhile since I've actually heard an American conservative talk about Jesus.

Instead, it's all Trump, all the time. Hell, the other day Franklin Graham referred to Trump as a "Defender of the Faith."

Are you fucking kidding me with that shit?

I find it telling that Evangelicals would rather accept crumbs from the tables of tyrants...even Islamic tyrants that two years and two months ago they'd have equated with the Devil himself...than listen to what their own religion teaches about justice, not committing murder, and the sanctity of life.

Listen, Christians, if ya'll want your religion to stop losing followers you're going to have to start doing better than this crap.

It's just that simple. This is America, not Saudi Arabia. No one has to follow your god.

Small "R."

Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.

I've been watching the events of the last couple of days and...to borrow from current Republican parlance, I'm...very concerned.

First, Trump threatens to deny federal disaster relief funds to California, claiming bad land management practices, never mind that the State has precisely dick to do with wild lands management or fire protection in the affected areas, which are largely Federal land...and thus the responsibility of the Bureau of Land Management and other Federal agencies to maintain. I'm quite serious in asking this...is there anything, anything at all, that these Republican assholes are willing to take responsibility for?

I mean, for some people...Americans...the world is literally burning, and all Republicans can think about is themselves and their petty resentments?

Per the Wikipedia article on the Woolsey Fire, one of the people who lost their home is Caitlyn Jenner. So you'd think a high-profile Republican being affected might cause Republicans to look up from their endlessly selfish pursuits and notice that something happened to one of their own. Except, oh, wait, Caitlyn naturally came out against the Trump administration's constant mistreatment of transgender people so I guess I ought not to be surprised that none of them deign to notice what's going on.

Case in point; of course, it's Trump. It was raining yesterday, so dude couldn't be bothered to get off his ass and go to the event he was supposed to go to. I mean, dude went to France and then spent the day sitting in his hotel room Tweeting and watching cable news? Who the fuck DOES shit like that? I mean, in all seriousness, send me to France and I'll gladly take part in a ceremony honoring our war dead. Hell, I'd do it regardless of the weather. I'd quite honestly just be happy to get out of this country for the first time since 2006...and my last actual overseas trip, such as it was, was in 2003. Trump isn't even paying for the trip, you give me a free trip to France...governmental responsibilities or no the last fucking thing I'm going to do is sit in my hotel room and angry-Tweet about shit.

And it's not just a routine trip, either. World War I ended 100 years ago tonight. Even I kind of feel the enormity of something like that, despite the fact that it was a long time before I was even born. World War I set the stage for America to begin establishing its power in the world and ironically it was under arch-racist Woodrow Wilson that America was one of the main powers behind the League of Nations and first really made use of the 'Soft power' that we would wield to establish such dominance over most of the next 100 years. Yet you know, it's funny that Trump and all his racist supporters never seem to have even one damn thing (good or bad) to say about somebody like Woodrow Wilson. I find that a little odd.

Except, sometimes I wonder if they'd even know who he was.

You know what gets to me, about all this? It's the smallness and yes, the meanness of these fucking people. America isn't America if everybody gets to take part, Heaven isn't heaven if everybody gets to go. These are the people who, metaphorically speaking...are why Jesus was born in a stable. Fuck you, I got mine. Despite the fact that the origins of their mentality lie in the Puritan Calvinism of the Pilgrims, the actuality of it has more to do with the Atheistic Objectivism laid out in the writings of Ayn Rand than with Christianity or the teachings of Jesus Christ...filtered through the false prophecies of  a French madman or otherwise. Trump's ideal of America is more Ayn Rand's fictional billionaires' paradise of Galt's Gulch than it is Reagan's shining city on a hill.

And yet, this toxic brew has everything to do with American Evangelical Protestant church culture...

Given that the pillars of conservatism as I was taught it were generally 'things as they are' along with free trade, human dignity, innovation, international engagement, a strong national defense and the creation of wealth for everybody (rather than the select few) this fascination today's conservatives have with withdrawing from the world...with slamming the door on the very system their parents created...baffles me to no end. It's like they basically decided that since White People weren't the ones getting everything, they didn't want it anymore...even though there's not a person on the planet (including them) whose life isn't improved in some way by our global economy, global society and yes, global engagement.

That includes Republicans, and their voters.

But I guess things being better for everybody isn't good enough for them. They want to not just get everything, but also be able to see that everybody else is miserable, too. Heaven isn't heaven if everybody gets to go. As others have pointed out, a lot of the reason these people believe in this crap is they think they'll get to sit up there in heaven and gloat while the rest of us get barbecued by Satan or something.

Personally, I prefer the bigger perspective...hell, that's the view of the Bible, of God, and of Heaven that I was taught, if you want to get really technical.

What's the point of going to heaven, if only people like me get to go? What's the point of America if only people like me get to live here? I much prefer the vision of America as the melting pot that I was taught in elementary school back in the 1970's and 1980's.

But I like this whole global society thing, too.

Why?

I'm nobody, I'm not nearly as much of a writer as many of the people I follow on social media...but I can say I know for a fact that people all over the world have read my stuff. That wouldn't be possible without the internet or the international system that America was a big part of creating. No, it doesn't dump money in my pocket...but money isn't why I do this, I'd like it to be eventually, but that takes years of work to even reach that point.

 But it's not just that kind of stuff that bothers me. Since the election, since they lost the House, Republicans seem to also be withdrawing from...well, things as they are...or in fact from the point of any person now living, always have been. Let's look at this logically: The entire idea that America was founded on was voting. If you consider even the literal descendants of the damned Pilgrims, for example, there isn't a damn one of 'em whose grandfather's grandfather's grandfather didn't live and die under some variation of the Stars and Stripes and our democratic system. Maybe it wasn't as developed as it is now, maybe America wasn't as powerful...but the ideals that guided us have always been powerful and ever-expanding, with (right or wrong) the idea that we'll eventually get to everybody. In an ideal world, everybody would have been included in the first place...but just as the idea of America is ever-expanding and our consciousness is ever-expanding, so is our definition of 'Rights.'

Of course, that's probably why Republicans, or at least today's version of them, wants to slam the door on the American Experiment, and the American Ideal as well. It's not just the rest of the world, they fear and hate their own neighbors, too.

Who needs Communists, or Russians, or Muslims or even terrorists...let alone enemy combatants or even, ya know, actual enemies when you can fear and hate the people living right next door because they might be voting for the other party? Or even just for no reason at all, or because their car or their house might be a little bit nicer? I mean, if we really want to go down the rabbit-hole of petty resentment-as-national-philosophy, it never stops.

When you're a small person who's terrified that people unlike yourself may vote, and that they may well vote for the other party...experiments and ideals don't much enter into it, do they?

But then I guess, me, Me, ME!!! isn't much of an ideal, now, is it?

And no matter how you dress it up that's what modern conservatism and Republicanism have become, the glorification of selfishness.

When what you're clearly terrified of is, in fact, the American Ideal, especially if it includes Black people voting and/or all the votes being counted?

Yeah, it's time to hang it up and go home at that point.

Ya know, I'm not sure what these fucking people believe in anymore, but it sure as hell isn't America.

These fucking people have become so small and petty that I think "Republican" should be consistently spelled with a small "r" no matter whether it's proper English or not.

It's also an inaccurate description, because the last thing these fuckers actually believe in is the Republic...not just as it's currently constituted...but as it ever was.

Invictus, Part Two.

Out of the night that covers me
Black as the pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever Gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell grip of circumstance, 
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the Shade
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how straight the gate
How charged with punishment the scroll.
I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.
~Invictus.

What did I do this morning? I went and got my car fixed, then decided to go to the pet store to play with baby ferrets. Along the way, I passed an old friend who was walking...an older African American dude who doesn't drive...and gave him a ride to several places he needed to go. THEN I went to play with ferrets, the pet store got this pretty little Blaze Sprite, all in all, it was a productive morning.

I remembered that I wrote a Post, just short of two years ago, and I thought I'd write up a sequel, just because I've got to have something to do while the ferrets are out.

So yeah, Republicans lost their ass in the House last night, and this morning Trump is basically publicly shitting himself. But then, Mr. Big Talker has been publicly trash-talking Maxine Waters and Nancy Pelosi since he got into office and now they're going to have the power to subpoena whatever of his crap they damn well please. The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward "Don't leave your credit card bill with the bar tabs from that trip to Dubai and the porn-site subscriptions on it where the Accounting and H.R. ladies can find it." Oops. Also, don't talk shit about them, it'll be reflected in your Eval.

"Democrats put hope on the ballot" and Republicans put Barbed Wire, Caravans, Pipe Bombs, Racism and Synagogue Shootings on the ballot too. Ratcheting up the crazy and the racism seems to have been a mistake...but Trump is still at it this morning. Meanwhile, an awful lot of Democrats are deferring celebrating to get back to work, and frankly I don't blame them. Hell, I'm sitting here typing this.

While they're doing that, Trump appears to be busy castigating Republicans who lost. For example, Mia Love of Utah. Now, personally if I were a Republican at this point I'd be carefully noting that occurrence and realizing that nobody on my own side really gives a fuck about me. But hey, when you've lost Tea Party Joe Walsh it's probably time to just hang it up and go home, Donnie. But hey, what do I know?

I mean, it's good that Utah has a Democrat in its congressional delegation for the first time in decades, and all, but I think Trump's treatment of his own people here is just cruel. I don't feel particularly celebratory about that kind of crap. Were I still a Republican, stuff like that would have me eyeing the exits...just sayin.'

Meanwhile, speaking of putting hope on the ballot...this is the kind of stuff Democrats are filling my social media feeds with. My own state elected a Muslim woman to the House yesterday, and the people of Minnesota bumped Ilhan Omar  (who I took note of in the original post two years ago) up from State to Federal level, representing Keith Ellison's former district.

Meanwhile, the dreams and self-esteem of a couple of Muslim immigrant kids get a boost too. Seems like a win, overall, if you ask me.

Republicans overwhelmingly ran on hate, racism and xenophobia, and what did it get them? They lost the House and (including this lady) Michigan's congressional delegation looks a lot more, well, like Michigan does. This particular middle-aged white guy is just fine with that.

And then there was this, too, not only did Chris Kobach get his ass handed to him, leaving Kansas with a Democratic governor after years of Republican mismanagement...but Sharice Davids won. So yeah, I'm guessing with an amateur MMA fighter in the House, things might get sporty the next time some dumb ass like Don Young decides to pull a knife on somebody. And then there's the fact that she's Native, meaning that Congress looks yet more like the rest of America, and actually includes those of us who were here first...for a change. I live near, and work on, a Reservation. This is a Big Deal.

So yeah, hang in there, stay focused, and keep up the fight. We kicked their ass, and it's really just that damned simple. We have to stay on point and kick their ass again next time, too...and the next one, and the one after that...until these fucking people either give up on their bullshit or we end up with better Republicans. Since the latter is functionally impossible, I'm going to shoot for the former. We need to tell these people to go fuck themselves at every possible level at every opportunity and keep at it until the job is done. You voted, the people have spoken. Now get after it and keep the pressure on...and keep up the good work.

My roommate just let me know, a bit ago, that Trump has forced Jeff Sessions to resign. Things are going to get sporty, although I doubt very much that any of this will work out the way that Trump thinks it will.

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. ~Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.

Why does god need billboards?

John 1:14 King James Version (KJV)

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

So, the election is tomorrow. In the meantime, there's something we need to talk about, something that's going to be a problem from here on out. To be honest, if Republicans lose tomorrow, it's probably going to be a bigger problem the worse they lose.

It's this "Cult 45" shit. It's that #MAGA is these people's Allah Akbar and Deus Vult and INRI and any other religious invocation or slogan you can think of...all rolled into one.

And if you think the above Bible verse in any way, shape or form references Donald Trump, you're part of the problem. The only "Word" made flesh here is "Asshole."

It's not just that the "Capital T, Capital S" Trump Supporters think he's some kind of a god, it's that at least some Evangelicals are speaking of him in terms that literally in a Biblical fashion are used to reference Christ.

Hello? Does anybody other than me see how screwed up this is?

Am I the only one (and mind you, I'm saying this as an Ex-Christian) who thinks that if these fucking people think that the Gospel needs to be made "Great Again" (or, for that matter, that Man could do such a thing through his own vain efforts) they're in the wrong damned business?

How is it, that with all these Evangelicals, with all their talk of faith and trusting in God and this and that and the other thing...it always comes down to cleverness, to deception, to manipulation and to trusting in Man's efforts rather than in the God they claim to revere above all else?

I honestly wonder, if whoever is responsible for such things were to place the actual mantle of divinity on Ayn Rand, or Donald Trump, or the fucking Pillsbury Dough Boy, how the fuck many of these exemplars of Christian Faith would leave Jesus hanging and rush right over to whatever other banner was most permissive in letting them do what they already decided they wanted to do anyway?

See, at least in my experience of it, belief in God, in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and in the workings of the Holy Spirit required a degree of internal morality...a conscious understanding that X was right and Y was wrong, and at least some belief in the concepts of facts, of reason, and of truth.

Why? Because if it's any other way, you risk getting caught up in cult-like belief systems, falling prey to false teachers, and getting carried away in the kind of maniacal idiocy I now associate with my ex-wife's Pentecostal church, or the message board of Christianity.com back in the day.

Or, ya know, you could end up like these people and (intentionally or not) start proclaiming by means of billboards and social media posts that Donald Trump is Jesus Christ.

Ya know, I've yet to see anything resembling either grace or truth from Trump or his supporters.

It's sort of like how back in the day on the Christianity.com forums some random dude could spout off for days about some guy named Benjamin Creme being the Anti-Christ. At the time, I had no idea who that was and upon even the slightest bit of investigation, well he's just some old guy who's made a career of of peddling vaguely Buddhist claptrap and editing a self-published magazine. Except, imagine that instead of putting this dude nobody'd ever heard of on blast all the time, this random Evangelical nut bag were spending days upon days proclaiming the glories of this idiot to all who would listen.

Ironically, the most eloquent take-down of the entire mess was from this Korean American Calvinist computer-and-theology nerd in Tennessee. "These aren't the droids you're looking for."

Yes, the world, or at least the world as I knew it roughly 15 years ago has well and truly been turned upside down. Instead of calling Trumpism what it is...a cult...and attacking it with the fury that they'll muster against the Hare Krishnas, the Mormons, the Moonies or Satya Sai Baba...the Evangelicals are now actively shilling for the cult in the hopes that they'll get a more "Christian" America out of the deal??

Wait, wait, wait...one of these things is very clearly not like the other one.

I suppose one could charitably put this crap down to desire for popularity, or groupthink, or just getting caught up in the moment...but I'm not going to buy into that crap. They were hoping they'd get more political power and social control, and that once they had it nobody would bring up how they got it.

Instead...despite the fact that Republicans control all three branches of government, I feel like their hold on things has never been weaker, and I feel like their weakness has translated into America losing its grip on the sole-Superpower status that conservatives once treasured so greatly and profited from so handsomely.

And the worst part is, they don't understand why. Well, I'm a tell you why. If you become the kind of dangerous, unstable, violent fanatic that even your own family can't trust you not to start shooting at them...this is going to trickle up writ-large into world affairs if enough people get like that. Much of the rest of the world is reacting accordingly, and when we come back to the table we're going to have to do so as an equal, not from some kind of superior position. 

See, our position in the world was built largely on soft power, on trust, on this idea that the Man Behind The Curtain man in the Oval Office was at least somewhat competent, and that if he screwed up, our democratic system...which much of the world follows some variation of, by the way...would hold him to account.

Instead, we have the Russians hoping and praying that Americans are going to start shooting at each other.

Is that how you want to see America go down?

Funny thing, but at the end of the day even the Trump Supporters, or at least the conservative old bags and the ranty old men quoted in the article that this Twitter post linked to admit this bullshit is not normal, implying that they know it's a cult, they know it's ridiculous, they know it's wrong...and that they just don't care. Maybe they think they'll get something out of it other than slowly starving to death when the Social Security checks stop coming and society falls apart and dueling elements of the former US military, or opposing gangs of militiamen with AK-47's and Technical Trucks, start fighting it out in their hometowns.

I don't know what the hell these fucking people are thinking. My own experience as a former member of several of their various tribes suggests that they simply aren't.

The midterm election is tomorrow. We have the capability to stop this crap.

We The People have within our grasp the power granted to mythological heroes, to Prophets, to True Believers the world over...and perversely to every single bogeyman the Evangelicals have ever hidden under their metaphorical beds in terror of

(...even though they imagine themselves to have that power even as they reject it in favor of fellating any shitbird that'll stroke their egos and tell them how great or important they are...)

...The power to destroy a false God,

To reveal it for what it is.

To be That Guy and ask "Why does god need a starship?" (Or a ballot box, or a billboard, for that matter.)

But only if we show up and vote.

Vote the bastards out. All. Of. Them.